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a little bit of everything...
(SR4) UPDATED-> Finally...Sony A850 and A900 firmware coming!It’s Alpha Mount Birthday!
The Alpha 7000 - The first alpha mount camera
In January 1985, Minolte released the (which was called “Alpha 7000″ in Japan and “
” in US). It was the first SLR camera with built-in housing passive autofocus system on the basis of phase detection. And at the same time it came with the new A-type bayonet lens mount, which is still used in Sony’s alpha cameras is.
And in the same month Minolta also released twelve brand new autofocus lenses!!! Sony…you could learn from it 
The lens were all optimized to the needs of the autofocus system. Five bayonet electrical contacts for the data transmission were installed. In 1991 three more contacts were added.
Nice history or not? Let’s hope Sony will soon announce new Zeiss Lenses
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I bought one of these in 1985 and instantly hated it. The buttons were waaaaay too small, the CHI configuration was not the best and the autofocus was sloooooow and noisy. A burgler did me a big favour and stole it along with the Rolleiflex and other stuff. The 28-85mm lens was a really nice lens though. But what it did was open the floodgates to innovation in AF and electronic augmentation of photography. Too bad they borrowed that AF technology from Bell & Howell without their permission and wound up paying such a huge settlement it eventually led to the demise of Minolta as a camera brand. But you can certainly see the Minolta DNA in the current Sony offerings.
Correction – the AF technology was patented by Honeywell, not B&H. Apologies.
I know a photographer who had that camera, in 1985 everyone laughed at it for having autofocus, it was just stupid, and now look. It only proves that the pioneers always win, and we should be glad camera makers don’t listen to us “pro’s”… because they know this better… it’s the same thing today with those anti LV and video guys!!